


No stranger to me

by SaotomeSakura



Category: Gravitation
Genre: Abduction, Drama, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Family, Family Drama, Family Feels, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-14
Updated: 2019-01-14
Packaged: 2019-10-10 09:15:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 11
Words: 16,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17423096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaotomeSakura/pseuds/SaotomeSakura
Summary: Yuki might not be the only one keeping secret. And some secrets are darker than black and longer than half a life. There is coming someone from the past and things will get dangerous.





	1. Chapter 1

Yuki was working on his newest novel, when he heard the front door click. He sighed and saved his work. Now that the brat was back, he might as well go and welcome him. But when he opened the door, he was met with forest green eyes of his brother in law instead of the purple ones of his lover.   
“Seguchi,” Yuki said.   
“Eiri, nice to see you,” Tohma smiled.   
Yuki frowned, “You let yourself in again. What do you want?”   
“No need to get grouchy, I bear gifts,” Tohma showed Yuki cake box.   
Now that was something Yuki couldn’t refuse. With him being so nice and all. Especially if it that was strawberry shortcake. So he took the cake and went for some plates and knife.   
Meanwhile Tohma smirked and sat on the couch in the living room.   
Yuki came in with the plates and sliced the cake. Once he had a slice on his plate, he looked at Tohma, “Now talk. Why are you here?”   
“Can’t I visit you to see how you are doing?” Tohma tilted his head.   
“I am fine, now leave,” Yuki growled and took a bite from his cake.  
“Now now, Eiri, don’t be mean, I only mean well,” Tohma laughed heartily, “How are you and Shindou-san doing?”   
“That’s none of your business, Seguchi,” Yuki snapped at him, but his ears burned bright red.   
“I’m glad, that he makes you happy,” Tohma smiled, “But please, call me nii-san…”   
“Like hell I will, I am not Natsuki after all!” as soon as Yuki let those words slip from his lips, he regretted them.   
Tohma paled and his eyes got so wide, that they resembled circles.   
“I… I am so-“ Yuki started, but Tohma stood up, interrupting him.   
“Don’t,” Tohma whispered, “I… I will go now. I overstayed my welcome.”   
“Tohma,” Yuki whispered.   
He wanted to reach for the platinum blonde, but he was interrupted again. This time by slamming the door and loud: “Yukiiiiiiiiiiii, tadaima!” Shuichi was home.   
A second after that the singer burst into the living room, but as soon as he saw the two blondes in there, he froze.   
“Uhm, hi Seguchi-san,” he said nervously. For a few seconds nobody moved, then Shuichi looked at the table, “Would you like some tea? Yuki probably didn’t offer you any…”   
Tohma forced smile onto his face, “No thank you, Shindou-san, I was already leaving.” And with that he quickly left the apartment.   
Shuichi blinked, “What just happened? Seguchi-san looked very upset…”   
“I said something I shouldn’t have,” Yuki said distractedly.   
Shuichi frowned, “What did you say?”   
Hearing that, Yuki snapped out of his stupor, “That’s none of your business!”   
Then he stood up and went to his study, slamming the door behind him.   
Shuichi flinched at the loud sound. “Yuki… what happened?” he whispered sadly. He slowly started to clean up the cake and plates. He knew that if he tried to pry things out of Yuki, he would be probably thrown out of the apartment. So he decided to leave it be. At least for now. 

\- - - - - 

The next day Shuichi ran into the studio, “I am sorry I am late!”  
Everyone was already there. But they seemed to be calm. Not even Suguru complained. He was already used to Shuichi lateness, and right now the pinkette wasn’t even that late, just a few minutes.   
“Is okay, Shu,” Hiro said, “We just got here too.”   
After that they got to work. Which consisted of last minute preparations for upcoming tour. In two days they would go on a two week tour in the America. This made Shuichi very nervous. He never was to the America, if one doesn’t count the quick trip to the New York to retrieve Yuki, but Hiro ensured him, that it will be fine.   
Suddenly the door slammed open and a green blur ran past them and tackled Shuichi.   
“Shuuuuuu-chaaaaaaaaan,” the blur, which was revealed to be Ryuichi, squealed.   
“Saku- I mean, Ryuichi,” Shuichi gasped as he lost balance and the two fell down, “What are you doing here?”   
Ryuichi sat up. “I was with Tohma, but he was upset and sent me away,” he said with a whine.   
Hearing that, Shuichi unintentionally let it slip, “Still?”   
“What do you mean by that?” Ryuichi asked confused.   
Shuichi scratched his cheek with one finger, “Err… Yesterday Seguchi-san was at Yuki’s house… and he was quite upset. After he left, Yuki said, that he said something he shouldn’t have… but didn’t tell me what.”   
“There is only one thing that can upset Tohma this much,” Ryuichi muttered and looked at Suguru, who looked straight back at him. Their eyes locked for a second, before they looked away. “But please, don’t pry,” Ryuichi whispered.   
Suguru walked to the door, “I think, I should go to see him…” And with that, he left.   
After Suguru left, there was no point in practicing further. So K let them go, and Ryuichi dragged Shuichi for lunch. 

\- - - - -

Yuki leaned on the doorframe to their bedroom.   
“Do you have everything?” he asked.   
Shuichi, who was running around the bedroom, packing his things into suitcase, nodded, “Yeah, I am almost done.”   
“Shirts, pants, underwear…” Yuki started listing of things that Shuichi will need.   
“Yes, yes and yes,” Shuichi said.   
“Shampoo, soap, toothbrush, toothpaste…” Yuki still listed.   
Shuichi now couldn’t help, but to roll his eyes. He had all of that, and even sneaked small box into his bag, when Yuki looked away, for later use, as he will need it soon. He turned to his blond haired lover, “Yes and I even have shoes, cap and sunglasses for disguise and my notebook, if I get inspiration for lyrics…”   
Yuki raised eyebrow. It seemed, that Shuichi was prepared. Yet there still was something, “Passport?”   
Shuichi leaned to Yuki and smiled, “Passport, money and some “just-in-case” pills are in the bag that I will take on board.”   
Than he grabbed the front of Yuki’s shirt, pulled him down and planted small kiss on his lips.   
“Happy now?” he asked with mischievous grin.   
Yuki nodded and kissed him again. Soon after that, they ended on bed and sleeping was far from their minds. 

\- - - - - 

Shuichi yawned as he walked beside Hiro through the airport.   
“Long night?” Hiro asked innocently.   
“Yeah, packing,” Shuichi won’t let Hiro have fun.  
“Riiight, packing,” Hiro grinned, but let it go, “Where is Yuki-san anyway?”   
Shuichi sighed, “He took me to the airport, but only to the gate. He has meeting in 20 minutes and couldn’t stay.”   
Hiro nodded.   
They both meet up with the rest, and soon boarded their flight.   
Once they took off, Shuichi turned to Suguru.   
“Hey, Fujisaki, is Seguchi-san better?” he asked.   
Suguru contemplated on ignoring him, but he knew Shuichi too well, so he decided to answer him, “Yes, he calmed down. He is just a bit depressed.”   
“Depressed?” Shuichi rolled the word on his tongue in confusion, “Why?”  
“None of your business,” Suguru snapped and stood up, “I am going to the restroom.”   
And with that he walked off. After that K leaned to Shuichi. He looked around, if Suguru was out of sight.   
“If you really want, I will tell you,” K grinned at Shuichi, who immediately nodded.   
“So… it all started ten years ago,” K started, “The public doesn’t know it, because Tohma wanted to protect him, but he had a younger brother, named Natsuki. Ten years ago, the Nittle Grasper had went on a tour in the USA, and when they came back, the caretaker, whom Tohma hired told him, that Natsuki ran away. There was a big investigation, that was when I met Seguchi Tohma. We found out, that the man Tohma hired, his name was Tanaka Masaru, had flat full of child porn. Well, and even though, we never found Natsuki’s corpse, the porn was enough to put that Tanaka guy in jail. Poor kid probably got raped by him and killed. I swore to Tohma, that since I couldn’t save his little brother, I will stand by him till I die…”   
Shuichi was pale as a sheet after hearing the story. But Suguru was coming back, so he couldn’t ask K anymore. He quickly grabbed some of his manga that he brought and pretended to read it. 

\- - - - - 

“Maaan, I am tired,” Hiro groaned.   
They were walking towards their rooms in the hotel. The flight was long, and even though they slept on board, they still felt like shit.   
“Once I get to my room, I pass out onto bed, dressed or not,” Shuichi yawned.   
“Same here,” Suguru said.   
K handed them their room keys and they retired to their rooms.   
Shuichi was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. To him it seemed like just a few moments when his alarm woke him up. He blearily looked at the clock on his nightstand, which read only 5 am.   
“What the…” he whispered angered, and grabbed his cell phone.   
He blinked at it confusedly. It had different time displayed. He probably forgot to set it to New York time. Well, he couldn’t go to sleep now, because once he was awake, he wouldn’t fall back asleep. So he might as well go take and shower.   
Shuichi sleepily walked to the bathroom, after grabbing his things from the bag. The shower woke him up. He was in far better mood than when he woke up.   
He even started to hum as he leaned closer to the mirror, touched his own eye, quickly removing colored piece of plastic from there and quickly disposed of it in the toilet. The same went for his other eye. Shuichi blinked a few times. His own reflection stared at him, but now with forest green eyes.   
“Still green as frog?” Shuichi asked noone in particular.   
He reached for the box he sneaked into his bag and opened it. And then he completely froze. It was his contact lenses box, but it was completely empty. He didn’t notice he ran out of lenses and now he had nothing to put on. And he already threw away his old ones.   
“You have to be fucking kidding me,” Shuichi started panicking.   
What should he do now? He had to get new contact lenses, or he will be in trouble. But he couldn’t leave the room, or others might notice. Then it hit him. The sunglasses. He will put on the sunglasses and quickly run to optic to buy new lenses. Shuichi quickly grabbed the sunglasses and ran into the streets of New York.   
It took Shuichi almost two hours to finally find the optics. He asked for the brand of lenses he normally wore, but they didn’t sell them here in the US.   
“I am sorry, sir, these are the only purple monthly lenses with extended wear we have here…” said the clerk.   
Shuichi examined them, they looked pretty close to his normal ones, so he nodded, “Okay, I will take them.”


	2. Chapter 2

Shuichi slowly walked back into the hotel. He looked all around, not wanting others to see him. Fortunately he didn’t see anyone. He might get back into his room without anyone noticing. Shuichi grinned at the thought. But then suddenly someone grabbed his arm. Shuichi squealed in shock and turned around.   
“Shuichi!” Hiro growled at the singer.   
“H-Hiro… how are you?” Shuichi chuckled nervously.   
Hiro glared, “Don’t “How are you”! Where have you been?! And what’s with those sunglasses?”   
“Ehehe… I woke up early and went for a walk,” Shuichi grinned, “the sunglasses are in case, somebody here knows me.” Then he pulled down the sunglasses.   
Hiro looked at him, blinked and then frowned.   
“You look… weird,” the guitarist said.   
Shuichi bit his lip, “R-Really? Maybe it’s just that I didn’t sleep enough… you know, time difference, eheheee.”   
Hiro looked doubtfully, but then he shrugged. That must be it. The guitarist felt tiredness too, and the pinkette had some dark circles under his eyes, so Hiro let it go.   
“Whatever, don’t do that again, K-san is having heartattack and is going to skin you,” he sighed and started to walk towards elevator with Shuichi trailing behind him. 

\- - - - - 

Mika walked out of the elevator in the NG building. She was determined to drag her husband out of his office, where he confined himself for the last few days.   
Mika knocked on the door of Tohma’s office, but didn’t wait for his answer and walked straight in.   
“Ah Mika-san,” Tohma smiled when he saw her.   
“Don’t give me that,” Mika bristled, “Are you trying to live here? You come home after midnight, and leave as soon as you wake up from your nightmares…”   
Tohma opened his mouth to protest, but Mika wasn’t finished yet, “And don’t try to cover it!”  
After she lost her steam, her features softened, “I know you are upset… but I want my husband back. I can’t do this alone.”   
Tohma bit his lip. He almost forgot about the fact, that Mika was pregnant. And he had slipped into his problems and neglected her.   
“I am sorry Mika-san… It won’t happen again,” Tohma stood up, walked up to Mika and hugged her.  
“It’s okay… I know what happened,” Mika whispered with a sad smile.

\- - - - - 

Mika and Tohma returned home and Tohma offered to make dinner as an apology and so Mika could rest. He had his apron on and was preparing ingredients, when Mika called to him.   
“Ne, when should we tell others?” she asked softly.   
“That’s up to you… Truth to be told, I am surprised that you didn’t tell them already,” Tohma chuckled, “It will be interesting to see Eiri’s face.”   
Mika smiled, “I wanted to wait a little. And wanted to tell them together with you.”   
Tohma set kitchen knife onto the counter and put his hand to his chin thoughtfully.   
“Well, how about after Shindou-san comes back from the US tour? I am sure it would make him happy that we include him into something as big as this… as it seems that he is stuck with Eiri forever,” Tohma said.   
Mika smiled at this, “Well he managed to put up with my brother’s antics and Eiri stopped pushing him away. So he is our family too.”   
Tohma slowly nodded. Even he couldn’t deny Shuichi’s influence. And somehow the singer managed to worm his way into the lives of Mika and Tohma too. 

\- - - - - 

Tanaka Masaru walked out of the police building. He couldn’t help, but to grin. He was free. After nine years he was finally free again. It cost him all his self-control, but he managed to get out on good behavior.   
Now that he was out of prison, he had some things to take care of. And revenge was on top of that list. But he will be careful. Not like last time. It was his own stupidity, that got him into trouble. He won’t make the same mistake again. Especially not, when the target changed.   
Masaru smirked menacingly, “I am coming for you… Seguchi Tohma!”


	3. Chapter 3

Shuichi tiredly rubbed his eyes. The late night concert with the afterparty really took a lot of energy out of him. Good thing their hotel wasn’t that far. Even Hiro was yawning. Everyone looked beat, everyone but K, who was humming happily.   
They pulled in front of the hotel and climbed out of the car.   
Shuichi rubbed his eyes again, when he suddenly felt something was wrong. His right eye started to sting, as if something fell there. His lens must have moved. He quickly slapped hand on his eye, but others noticed it.   
“What is it, Shu?” Hiro asked confused.  
Shuichi quickly shook his head, “N-Nothing… just something fell into my eye. I will just go to the bathroom.”  
And with that he bolted, leaving the rest of the band stare after him. 

\- - - - - 

Shuichi sighed as he took out his lenses and put them in their case, to clean them.   
"Thank god they didn't tear," he mumbled as he rubbed his eyes, "Hiro would kill me if I went for another walk..."   
Then the singer threw himself onto the bed. He rolled on his back, and stared at the ceiling. Even in his tiredness he couldn't help, but to think about what K told them. Ever since then whenever he was left alone, Tohma was invading his thoughts. Sometimes he wondered if it was worth...   
"Shut up brain," Shuichi groaned and turned on his side. "He has new family now..." he murmured. And with that he drifted to sleep. 

\- - - - - 

The days after that incident Shuichi tried to keep in his room as much as possible. He was even taking out his lenses, because they kept slipping. He couldn’t wait for them to go back to Japan, so he could buy his usual brand.   
Hiro on the other hand started to notice, that Shuichi was pulling away. He tried to find out his reasons, but every time he asked, the singer told him, he was tired from the time difference. Hiro didn’t believe that much, but then again, he too was still feeling the change of time.   
Everyone was relieved, when they were sitting on the plane back to Japan after all their American concerts.   
“I can’t wait for you to get back to the studio and start practicing new songs,” K cackled evilly.   
“You have to be kidding meeee,” Shuichi whined, “We are not even in Japan yet and you are already planning more work for us?!”   
K just kept smirking, so the bandmembers pretended not to know him. They wanted to let him cool down. They knew he wouldn’t change his mind, but at least maybe if they complied, he wouldn’t go so hard on them.   
When they got off the plane, Shuichi pulled out his phone.   
“I should call Yuki to pick me up,” he told others and dialed Yuki’s number.   
K nodded in approval and Hiro just smiled.   
“Yeah, we just landed. Eh? We are at gate… 21” Shuichi mumbled into the phone.   
“Well then look around,” said deep voice and Shuichi whirled around, his sigh falling onto his lover and he squealed. Immediately he glomped Yuki, almost sending them both to the ground.   
Yuki looked at others, “I will take this idiot home, before he makes a scene and we will all be mobbed.”   
K waved him off ad reminded him that they still had work the other day. 

\- - - - - 

“Sorry I am laaaate,” singsonged Shuichi as he walked into the studio.   
Hiro just smirked and reached towards others, who gave him money with sour look on their faces.   
“What are you doing?” Shuichi asked confused.   
“We bet on whether you would come,” Hiro commented, “I said you will definitely come…”   
“You what?! That’s so mean!” Shuichi pouted.  
“Hey, I just got money for Maiko’s present,” Hiro grinned.   
“Present? Why do you buy Maiko present?” Shuichi blinked.   
“What do you mean why? I do it every year, she is like sister to me,” Hiro said, “Wait, you didn’t forget that her birthday is coming up, right?”   
Shuichi was standing there dumbfounded. He wasn’t really paying attention to the date, so in fact, he did forget.   
“Oh my god, what will I do?!” he started to panic.   
Hiro was trying not to burst out laughing at Shuichi’s antics, “Calm down Shu, there is still time…”   
“She likes Sakuma-san almost as much as I do! I know what to do… Be right back,” Shuichi called as he bolted out of the room. 

\- - - - - 

Tohma was having a cup of coffee when a hyperactive ball bolted into his office and tackled him. He was used to it, thinking it was Ryuichi, but then he noticed the pink mop of hair.   
“Seguchi-saaaaan,” Shuichi whined, kneeling beside Tohma, “You have to help meeeee!”   
Tohma blinked, “And how can I help you?”   
“My sister Maiko has birthday in a few days, and she just loves Sakuma-san,” Shuichi rambled, “please, please, please can I have vip pass to Nittle Graspers concert? I will do anything. Pleaaaaaaaase?”   
Tohma stared at Shuichi for a few seconds. The pink haired singer looked so hopeful and expectant. Tohma could see how much Shuichi cared for his sister, because normally he wouldn’t just barge into his office to beg for stuff. His mouth ran dry and he nodded.   
Shuichi squealed in delight and hugged Tohma for a second, before realizing what he had done and jumping away apologizing.   
“But I have one condition,” said Tohma with small smile.   
Shuichi looked at him suspiciously and Tohma laughed, “Don’t worry, I just want you to drag Eiri to my house on Sunday. There is something Mika-san and I want to tell you.”   
“Oh,” Shuichi nodded.   
After that Shuichi returned to his band and worked all day without complaining. When they finally stopped, Hiro asked Shuichi if he wanted to hang out for a bit. They went to their favorite ramen stand. Shuichi ate his usual five helpings which Hiro made fun off.   
On their way back Hiro saw a prank shop and dragged Shuichi there.   
“Hey Shu, look at this,” Hiro giggled as he put on pink wig.  
Shuichi laughed at that and grabbed green wig.  
“Nah, that doesn’t suit you, try this one,” Hiro put blonde wig on him and started to laugh, “Now you look like Seguchi-san, just without green eyes.”   
Shuichi paled and quickly threw the wig away.   
“Hiiro, what if he heard you? He would hang both of us,” Shuichi said nervously.  
“What? Why?” Hiro asked confused.   
“Nevermind… let’s go somewhere else,” Shuichi dragged Hiro away. 

\- - - - - 

Masaru was sitting in a restaurant in front of NG building. He was smoking while he was observing the building. He did that for the past few days, trying to determine Seguchi’s schedule. For a man that powerful he was surprised that he was not found out yet. Not that Masaru would complain.   
He saw two men exit the building and normally he wouldn’t pay attention to them, but the smaller one was kind familiar, but he couldn’t put finger on why. So he decided to follow them.   
Masaru almost cursed when it turned out to be the most boring stalking ever. He was about to call it quits, when those men went inside prank shop and started to fool around with wigs. And suddenly Masaru knew what was bugging him about the pink haired idiot. He had to bit his lip as to calm down and quickly ran away.   
Masaru entered his small apartment and started to threw things in rage.   
“That little bitch! Slut! I will get him!” he threw a plate with half eaten molden bread, “I will get him! And let that blond motherfucker watch!”   
Masaru sat on couch.   
“I will get them both,” he chuckled darkly.


	4. Chapter 4

"I still don't understand why do we have to go to Seguchi's," grumbled Yuki.   
Shuichi rolled his eyes, "Seguchi-san invited us... and besides Mika-san is your sister, isn't she? Would it hurt you to visit her from time to time?"   
Yuki stayed silent for a few seconds, then he said: "You are quite hypocrite, you know..?"   
"W-What do you m-mean?" Shuichi stuttered nervously. 'Does he know?!' he thought panicking.   
"When was the last time you visited your sister at home?" Yuki smirked, oblivious to Shuichi's panic.   
Shuichi sighed in relief.   
"I will have you know, I visited my family just before my tour," Shuichi glared at Yuki.   
Yuki hmmed but didn't say anything else until they got to Seguchi's residence.   
Mika and Tohma welcomed them warmly, even laughed at Shuichi's complaining about how he had to drag Yuki to the car. 

\- - - - - 

After lunch Shuichi excused himself to go to bathroom. On the way back to others he noticed a room with door ajar and he couldn’t resist peeking inside.   
It was quite a big room with some chairs and in the middle of the room there was a piano.   
Shuichi quietly sneaked to the piano, touching it gently with one finger, and slowly traced the edge. Then he noticed small scribbling on the side and gasped. This was… Shuichi quickly shook his head. He should get back to others. But he couldn’t help to push a few keys in a simple melody.   
“Wouldn’t it be easier to play with both hands?” came a voice from the door.  
Shuichi snapped his head towards the voice and saw Tohma.  
“Ah… sorry Seguchi-san,” he squealed and jumped away from the piano.   
“It’s okay, I just thought you were lost,” Tohma said as he walked to the piano, “I almost forgot that you were playing keyboard when the Bad Luck first started…”  
He pushed one key, letting the tone resonate in the room, “You know, some of Nittle Grasper’s hits like Sleeping Beauty were composed on this piano…”   
“Really Seguchi-san?” Shuichi gasped in awe.   
“And you know… maybe you should start calling me by first name,” Tohma said mischievously, “If you stuck with Eiri for so long, you are family now.”  
Shuichi blinked, “The same goes for you, you can call me Shuichi too…”   
“Oh, trust musicians to get stuck in the only room with musical instrument,” said Mika as she walked into the room with Yuki right behind her.   
“I am sorry my dear, but we breathe music, so what did you expect?” Tohma said with small smile on his lips, “But seeing as we are all here, why doesn’t Shuichi play something for us as a punishment for coming here?”   
Shuichi blushed.   
Yuki smirked, “As if the brat could play on something so sophisticated as piano.”  
“What did you say?!” Shuichi glared at Yuki, “Sit down blondie and watch.”  
Everyone blinked and sat down on chairs near the piano.   
Shuichi sat at the piano and took few moments to pick a song to play, and then he took a breath and his fingers started to dance across the keyboard in a swift melody.   
Mika smiled and closed her eyes, enjoying the acoustic harmony.   
Tohma just smiled at Yuki, who seemed to be most surprised of them all, that his hyperactive popstar could play something even resembling to a classical music. It just clashed with the image of the pink haired man.   
After that song Shuichi switched to slower, nostalgic song. His face was full of concentration, but at the same time calm. When he ended the song, Mika and Tohma applauded.   
“Very nice choice Shindou-kun,” praised him Tohma, “Mozart and Chopin, played with such precision.”   
Shuichi smiled nervously, “T-Thank you Seguchi-san, it was kind of long since I played on piano, so I was a bit afraid that I would make some mistakes…”  
“If you can play like this, why don’t you play on keyboard for Bad Luck?” Yuki asked.   
Shuichi shrugged, “Well, even… even my first teacher said that I can play the song without mistakes… but when it comes to composing my own stuff, it just wasn’t that good.”   
“There is difference between repeating things and creating something new,” Tohma nodded.   
Mika leaned closer to Tohma.   
“How about we now tell you why we called you here?” she said smiling.   
Tohma looked at her, as if asking who will be the one to deliver the news and Mika grinned.   
“Well, without further delay… I am pregnant,” Mika announced.   
There were a few moments of silence before Shuichi practically exploded with excitement. He started to shoot questions at the woman, who laughed at his antics.   
Yuki grabbed the back of Shuichi’s collar and pulled him backwards, “Sheesh, just shut up, brat.”   
Shuichi looked sheepishly, “Sorry… I am just so excited… Oh, oh, did you think of name yet?”  
Mika shot her husband a glance and said, “I was thinking about ‘Natsuki’.”   
Everyone froze. Yuki and Shuichi looked at Tohma how he would react.   
He sighed and calmly said: “No.”   
Shuichi looked at Tohma and Mika. He gulped and said, “I think that’s nice name. Your brother would be proud to have his nephew named after him.”   
Mika and Yuki gaped at the singer, while Tohma glared.   
“I don’t know who told you about that, but I said no and that’s final,” he said.   
Mika quickly changed the topic to avoid further tension. 

\- - - - - 

“So…” Yuki said on their way back home, “You know about Seguchi’s brother?”  
Shuichi shrugged, not wanting to say that K told him.   
Instead he turned to the window, so Yuki couldn't see his face. He had his family and Tohma had his, but for some reason, he felt weird. Especially seeing Tohma like that. But on the other side, what would happen if...?   
Shuichi quickly shook his head.  
Yuki glanced at him, "What is it brat?"   
"N-Nothing," said Shuichi quickly, "Just... thinking about new lyrics and I don't like them..."   
"Don't hurt yourself," Yuki said turning back to the front.   
Shuichi glared, but didn’t say anything and looked out of the window again.


	5. Chapter 5

“It’s good to see you again,” smiled Shindou Midori, Shuichi’s and Maiko’s mother, as she welcomed both Shuichi and Hiro. Midori was petite woman with pale pink hair, blue eyes and warm smile.  
Shuichi and Hiro came for Maiko’s birthday party, as was the tradition for five or six years now.   
Hiro attended every family event in the Shindou family. He was almost as a second son to Midori and Hiro’s mom was Midori’s best friend.   
“It’s nice to see you again too, Midori-san,” Hiro smiled at the woman, “You look great in this green dress… Are you sure you are not Maiko’s sister?”  
Midori laughed, “Aww… polite as always Hiro-kun. How is Chiyaki-san?”  
Hiro started talking about his mom, how she finally let go of the thought of him being a doctor and even buying on of theirs CD’s. And she actually liked it, praising both Hiro and Shuichi.   
Midori giggled, “It was about time, with your album being platinum.”   
They all sat in the living room. Midori brought some refreshments, and soon the table was full of various food, as if she was trying to feed a small army. Shuichi couldn’t help but comment on that, even though, he was probably the one eating the most.  
“Geez, Shu I am so jealous of your metabolism,” Maiko sighed.  
“Too bad, you have to get fat,” Shuichi smirked.  
“What did you say?!” exclaimed Maiko, as Hiro was trying to stifle a laugh. Arguments like this were nothing new. Shuichi and Maiko bickered a lot, but they also would die for each other.   
“Nothing,” Shuichi tried to look innocent, but Maiko didn’t buy it.  
“Ha, as if I would believe that,” she threw a pillow from the couch at him, smacking him in the face.  
The two siblings bickered for a bit, with Hiro teasing them both, when Midori came with big leather bound book and exclaimed: “Picture time!”  
Maiko groaned, knowing this will only lead to embarrassing stories and even more embarrassing questions.  
Shuichi smirked, knowing fully well how their mother loved bringing up those photos at every possible chance and how Maiko hated it.  
“Oh and remember this time when you bathed and…” Midori showed them a picture with child Maiko in a bath.  
“MOM!” Maiko yelled, to stop her mom from really embarrassing her in front of Hiro, who was chuckling amusedly.  
“You know,” Hiro said, “We always talk about Maiko’s embarrassing childhood… but what about Shu?”  
“Uh, well,” Midori started, but Shuichi shrieked, successfully cutting her off.  
“Aaaa…ahahahaha… story time over!” Shuichi said nervously, grabbing the picture book and running off with it.  
Hiro blinked, “What happened?”  
Maiko and Midori looked at each other in confusion.  
“Well… Shu-chan doesn’t like to talk about his childhood,” said Midori.  
Hiro was confused, “Why? Did something happen?”  
Maiko shrugged, “We don’t know… nii-san was a-…“  
“Present time!” Shuichi exclaimed as he returned to the living room.  
He distracted everyone from the talk, and got them focused on presents for Maiko. Nobody said a word about the incident afterwards.

\- - - - -

“So, how was your visit?” Eiri asked, liting a cigarette, while still typing on his laptop.  
“As always,” Shuichi leaned to Eiri, “We gave my sister presents and my mom had truckload of funny stories…”  
The pink haired man then hugged Eiri and gently kissed him on a cheek.  
“Hmmm, and what about stories about you?” Eiri smirked, as he pulled Shuichi closer, putting his cigarette in ashtray and started to kiss him on the throat to get him in good mood, hoping to get some blackmail material.  
“Mnnmm, there was one time,” Shuichi started, tilting his head to the side, to give Eiri more space, “Me and my b-…”  
Suddenly Shuichi’s eyes widened, he squealed and pushed himself away from Eiri, but in doing that, he also lost his balance and ended up falling on his back.  
Eiri blinked in confusion, and then he raised an eyebrow, “What the fuck are you doing?”  
Shuichi quickly jumped to his feet, “N-Nothing… I just realized… that I need to… write a song… yeah… or K-san will kill me…”  
And with that, he quickly left the room, not giving Eiri time to question him.  
Shuichi sat on the couch in the living room, with hands hiding his face.   
“What the hell am I thinking..?” he murmured softly, “Ten years without incident…”   
He grabbed his notebook and pen, to get his mind of the ordeal, and to please K with some new lyrics. The singer got so engrossed into his work, that he didn’t notice hours go by, until it got too dark to see. He blinked a few times and looked around. He stood up, and switched on the light. Then he grinned gleefully at the new song and red it through. 

Watashi de wa nakatta to omotta   
hikari no naka de   
shurui no hitotsu de atta   
kichō na shinju   
naki tai toki   
watashi o hikiokosu koto ga deki mase n deshi ta.   
yurusare nakatta 

subete no gomenasai   
Gomenasai   
watashi wa anata o shitsubō shitte i masu.   
saigo made Gomenasai   
yūjin ga hitsuyō na koto   
ima yō 

subete watashi ga kangae ta mono de wa nakatta   
totemo mujaki   
sensai na ningyō datta   
jiki no   
anata ni denwa shi tai toki   
soshite anata no tasuke o motomeru   
jibun jishin o teishi shi te kudasai. 

subete no Gomenasai   
Gomenasai   
watashi wa anata o shitsubō shitte i masu.   
saigo made Gomenasai   
yūjin ga hitsuyō na koto   
ima yō 

watashi wa yume datta to omotta   
mirāju   
sore ga mie ta node, honmono datta   
tokken   
anata o tsutaeru shi tai toki   
misu o okashi   
watashi wa arui ta 

subete no tame no Gomenasai   
Gomenasai, Gomenasai,   
yūjin ga hitsuyō na koto   
ima yō   
anata o saseru Gomenasai,   
Gomenasai, Gomenasai,   
saigo made Gomenasai   
yūjin ga hitsuyō na koto   
ima yō 

Shuichi frowned.   
„Geez, I can’t give K this,” he sighed, “They will ask questions…”  
Suddenly a voice came from the doorway, “You are still here?”  
Shuichi shut his notebook and whirled around, only to see Eiri leaning on the wall, tiredly rubbing his eyes.   
“Ahaha, yeah… wanted to write a song, so K-san wouldn’t kill me, but it’s not going anywhere,” he laughed nervously.   
“That’s not surprising,” Eiri smirked.   
Shuichi pouted, but decided not to comment on that. Instead he hugged the blonde man, gently kissed him on the cheek and dragged him to the bedroom. 

\- G – G – G – 

“Shindou! You messed up again!” Suguru growled.   
Shuichi collapsed on a couch in their recording room, “But Fujisaki… We have been at it for 3 hours. Let’s get break!”   
Suguru glared at the singer. He too was starting too feel all that training, but he didn’t want to give up just yet. They had only done two songs, and he really wanted to record one more, before they go for lunch. But it seemed, he won’t have such luck. Especially if nobody but the keyboardist was against a break. So he didn’t have much of a choice.   
“Fine,” he sighed, slumping his shoulder, “Let’s have lunch and after that, record this goddamned song.”   
Shuichi grinned and quickly bolted for the door, before Suguru changes his mind. Others followed him at much slower pace.   
After lunch Shuichi insisted on getting snacks, so he went to a vending machine, that was in the lobby, for his favorite strawberry pocky. He noticed almond pocky and bought it absentmindedly too, only to stare at it afterwards.   
‘This is… Tohma’s favorite,’ he thought, ‘Geez, I can’t give it to him just like that… He will ask how I knew.’  
Shuichi bit his lip. He made a motion to throw it away, but then he sighed in defeat.   
“If I already bought it, I might as well give it to him,” he murmured, as he headed to Tohma’s office, simultaneously pulling out his cell phone and sending a text message.   
Fortunately the blonde was not there. So Shuichi quickly put it on the table and ran away.   
He returned to the recording room and froze. Others were holding his notebook, which he stupidly left on the table, when they were discussing new songs in the morning before recording.   
“What are you doing?!” Shuichi yelled.   
“We were looking for the lyrics you were working on,” Hiro said, “Shu, what are those? They are really good, but you never mentioned them.”   
Shuichi jumped to them, grabbing the notebook, tearing the paper out and tearing it to pieces.   
“I don’t like it!” he exclaimed.   
Others looked at him as if he was mad, but then Suguru facepalmed, “Damn those moody singers…”   
The rest of the day went normally. Or better than normally, because Shuichi tried his best not to piss Suguru anymore, and without complain did everything that he was told. And when they were finally let go, he bolted through the door with only “Gotta hurry to Yuki!” explanation.   
But in truth, he didn’t head to his and Eiri’s shared condo. He went to Maiko’s school, to wait for her, because he wrote her earlier that he wanted to meet with her.   
She was already waiting there for him, confusion clearly written on her face.   
“Shu-nii, why did you want to meet so suddenly?” she asked as soon as she noticed him.   
“What, can’t I just spend time with you?” he tried to look innocent, but Maiko didn’t buy it.   
“Right, but really,” she rolled her eyes.   
Shuichi didn’t want to discuss it on the street, and didn’t want to go home, so he lead Maiko to a small pastry shop.   
After they ordered, Maiko quietly waited for Shuichi to start.   
“Well… how should I start,” Shuichi nervously ran fingers through his hair, “Maybe… no… how about… I… You know how ten years ago refused to say anything else about me, just that my name is Shuichi?”   
Maiko nodded, her curiosity quickly escalating, because Shuichi most of the time pretended that there was nothing from before ten years ago.   
“Well… I was obviously old enough to remember who I was and who my family was… but I didn’t want to. But now…”   
Shuichi had to cross his arms, to stop them from shaking, “I had… I have a brother. I met him; he just didn’t recognize me…”   
Maiko’s eyes widened, “OH MY GOD! Congratulation! How did he react when you told him?!”   
“I didn’t,” Shuichi said simply.   
“Why the hell not?!” Maiko wanted to smack the pink haired man.   
“I… I don’t want to meddle into his life… he has family, you know?” Shuichi tried to defend himself, “And besides… what would mom think? I don’t want her to think I don’t love her because she is not my blood family. Nor you…”   
Maiko quieted down. She knew how sensitive Shuichi was about him not being her real brother. And this must have been really difficult for him to say.   
“But doesn’t he deserve to know that you are alive?” she asked softly.   
There was silence for a few seconds.   
“Yes… No… I don’t know…” Shuichi looked away.   
“I think you already do. You want to tell him. So tell him. We wont think of you any less… It would be nice to have another brother. And mom would gain some of yours embarrassing baby stories,” Maiko smiled softly.   
Shuichi laughed, “Yeah… She would love that.”   
“Hey… and who is your brother anyway?” Maiko leaned to Shuichi.   
But Shuichi just shook his head, “I don’t want to tell you… Not until I tell him.”


	6. Chapter 6

Shuichi was still sitting at the shop long after Maiko left. He was also holding his phone, trying to get himself to call Tohma. He was chewing on his bottom lip, flinching, when his teeth accidentally broke the skin.  
“Shit,” his hand flew to the abused lip, massaging it and making sure, there wasn’t blood. Or at least not too much blood.   
Shuichi sighed and finally pressed the buttons and dialed Tohma’s number. It started to ring and Shuichi was halfway to disconnecting it, telling himself, that the blonde is too busy and he will call another time, when it clicked and he heard Tohma’s smooth voice, “Hello?”   
“Uh, hey, Se-I mean Tohma-san,” Shuichi said nervously.   
“Ah, Shuichi-kun, it’s unusual for you to call me,” Tohma said amusedly, “Did something happen?”   
“N-no… I just wanted to ask… are you free tomorrow?” Shuichi asked.   
“Let me see,” there was a few silent seconds as Tohma looked at his plans, “Hmm, I have free afternoon tomorrow…”   
“Great,” the singer grinned, “Can we meet?”   
“Sure,” Tohma agreed, “I can come over to Eiri’s or you can come, I am sure Mika won’t mind some company…”   
“NO!” Shuichi exclaimed, but quickly composed himself, “I… sorry. But can we meet alone? Just the two of us… I have to… tell you something.”   
If Shuichi could see Tohma, he would see the raised eyebrows.   
“O-kay, where would you like to meet then?” Tohma asked.   
Shuichi thought for a second, “How about that bar we met the first time? That one that Mika-san dragged me to.”   
Tohma chuckled in amusement, “Okay, so I will see you there. How about at three?”   
“Great, thanks Tohma, bye,” Shuichi ended the call and let out nervous sigh.   
He didn’t realize until now, he was so nervous that his palms were all sweaty. He chuckled a bit at the irony, that he could perform in front of thousands of people, but speaking to Seguchi Tohma was still scaring him to death. 

\- G - G - G - 

Shuichi walked into their apartment with medium sized box with pattisieurs logo printed on it in his hands. On his face was plastered big grin.   
“Tadaima Yuki!,” he exclaimed happily.   
Yuki, surprisingly, came from the living room, not dressed in his usual cotton shirt and sweatpants, like usually when he was working, but in dark jeans and button up shirt.   
“You are late,” he said flatly, “Where have you been?”   
Shuichi scratched the back of his head sheepishly, “I went out with Maiko…”   
“Oh? So you already ate?” Yuki raised eyebrow, “And here I wanted to take you out for a dinner… But I guess I will be going alone.”   
Shuichi gaped at Yuki, who put on his shoes and took his coat.   
“I want to go too!” he exclaimed.   
“Nope,” Yuki smirked, “If you had called, I would have told you not to eat. But we can’t have you eat so much, or you will get fat.”   
“What did you say?! You…” Shuichi yelled out, but suddenly stopped and grinned, “You know what? Have fun!”   
And with that he turned on heel and walked to the kitchen.   
The blonde was standing there trying to comprehend what just happened. Then he followed the singer, only to find him humming some tune and slicing some dessert.   
“What is that?” the novelist asked.   
“It’s mine,” Shuichi said, completely ignoring the question.   
“Is it…?” Yuki leaned closer.   
“Strawberry shortcake? Yep,” Shuichi put one piece on his plate.   
“Can I get some?” Yuki asked.   
Shuichi started to eat the cake suggestively, “Nope.”   
“You brat!” Yuki lounged at Shuichi, who giggled and ran away with the plate.   
They chased each other around the apartment for a few minutes. Then Shuichi let himself be caught by Yuki and with a silly giggles escaping his lips, he handed some cake to the author. 

\- G - G - G –

Shuichi slowly came to. He opened his eyes and saw that Yuki was still sleeping, which was a common thing, as he was usually puling all-nighters, and wasn’t a morning person.   
The singer grinned and leaned closer, so he could kiss the blondes cheek.   
Yuki’s eyebrows knit together and he cracked one eye open.   
“Good morning Sleeping Beauty,” Shuichi sing-songed and glanced at a clock that was on a table beside the bed, “It’s already past nine…”   
Yuki glared, “What are you doing up so early? Go back to sleep…”   
Shuichi wanted to protest, but Yuki rolled over and trapped him underneath his weight.   
“Sleep,” murmured the blonde.   
Shuichi rolled his eyes, but then smiled softly. It was times like these, that allowed him to forget that sometimes Yuki could act like an ass.   
They stayed in the bed for another hour, before Shuichi’s stomach got the better of him, and he climbed out of the bed to go to the kitchen.   
Before he left the bedroom, he didn’t forget to call out: “I am going to cook breakfast!”   
He closed the door and counted down:   
3… 2... 1…   
“What the hell?!” Yuki came barreling out of the bedroom, “Didn’t I tell you not to touch anything?”  
Then he saw Shuichi standing right beside the door, grinning, and he narrowed his eyes, realizing he was just played by Shuichi like a piano.   
Shuichi glomped him, “Aww, Yuki is so nice and comes to make me breakfast.”   
“Shut up brat, I should smack your naked ass ‘till it’s red,” the blonde grumbled out, but walked into the kitchen nevertheless. 

\- G - G - G –

After the breakfast Shuichi went to the bathroom to take shower.  
Yuki leaned on the doorframe, looking bored, „I thought, you said today is your day off...“  
„I do,“ Shuichi smiled, „Buuuuut, I also have someone...“  
Yuki raised an eyebrow, „Someone? Are you cheating on me?“  
„What?! No!“ Shuichi exclaimed, „Okay... it’s Se- Tohma.“  
„Whatever,“ Yuki rolled his eyes and went to the living room.  
When Shuichi was done preparing, he checked on Yuki, who was reading by turned on TV.  
„Geez, either read or watch,“ Shuichi rolled eyes.  
Yuki lifted his eyes from the book, „Hmm, you are dressed nicely... Too nicely to just meet with your boss...“  
„I don’t know what you are talking about,“ Shuichi crossed arms on chest.  
„Sure ya don’t,“ Yuki said sarcastically, „I didn’t know you owned button down shirt.“  
„Ah... well... We are meeting in a nice restaurant! Bye!“ Shuichi said quickly, turned on his heels and ran out, slamming the door close.  
„We will see about that meeting with Seguchi,“ Yuki murmured, pulling out his cell phone and dialing familiar number.

\- G - G - G –

„Yes Eiri, I am sure Shuichi-kun is meeting with me. In fact, I am just leaving to go there,“ Tohma was reassuring Yuki for the third time, with amused tone in his voice.  
The blonde walked out of his Office, waved at his secretary and got on the elevator.  
„You sound jealous,“ Tohma pointed out, „Yes, you are. But don’t worry. I will keep an eye on your princess. Bye.“  
Tohma chuckled as he ended the call and put his cell phone into his pocket. Sometimes Eiri could be act really cute about the singer.  
He was nearing his car, pulling out the keys, when suddenly a hand with weird smelling rag came from behind and pressed to his nose. Tohma wanted to scream, but it came out muffled. He felt his limbs weaken. Someone started to drag him, and suddenly he was pushed into some foreign car. The last thing he remembers was a dark chuckle. And then everything became dark.


	7. Chapter 7

“Welcome,” said the waiter as the bell rang when Shuichi opened the door to the shop.   
Shuichi nodded, “Hello.”   
“Ah, I remember you,” smiled the waiter, “You came here with Seguchi-san. How can I help you?”   
“Do… do you have any secluded place that can be used for a meeting?” Shuichi asked nervously.   
“Of course,” the waiter then lead Shuichi in the back, where on a short corridor were a few rooms for discreet meetings.   
Shuichi sat down and looked at the clock. It was still early, but knowing Tohma, he will be here probably soon. The singer noticed that his hands were shaking, so he clasped them together and took a few deep breaths to calm himself down. Seriously, he could perform in front of thousands of people, but he gets nervous just by thinking about talking to one person.   
‘But this is not just any person,’ came a thought.   
“Shut up brain,” Shuichi groaned, “Great, now I am talking to myself...”   
The waiter came and Shuichi ordered ice tea, to calm himself and to have something to hold on, when the time to confess comes.   
After his drink came, Shuichi focused on what would he say. How would he make his confession. Preferably so that Tohma wouldn’t hate him forever and beyond.   
But minutes ticked by and Tohma had yet to show up. Shuichi glanced at his phone to check the time and his eyes widened. The Nittle Grasper keyboardist and manager was hour and half late.   
Shuichi frowned, it wasn’t like Tohma to be late. He pushed the call button, found Tohma’s number and started to dial it. But nobody was picking up. After few tries, Shuichi stood up and went to pay for his drink.   
“I am sorry for the inconvenience,” said Shuichi, “It seems that Seguchi-san couldn’t come, so I will be going now.”   
“I hope I will see you soon,” the waiter smiled.   
Shuichi left the shop and headed towards NG. 

\- - - - - 

“What the hell do you mean he was kidnapped?!” Eiri snapped at K.   
“Exactly what you heard,” K growled, not liking Eiri’s tone. After all it wasn’t his fault, he was just a messenger. But everyone gathered in NG studios and acted as if he was responsible for the safety of the whole building.   
“The security cameras just recorded Seguchi leaving the building, heading towards his car and then some person knocking him out, loading him into their car and setting off,” K reported to others, “We don’t have much on the culprit as they had a cap, but it was probably a male.”   
“And what the security was doing?” Suguru asked annoyed, how come they didn’t help?”   
“It happened too fast, by the time they left the building culprit was long gone,” said K.   
“Some security,” Suguru muttered.   
K rolled his eyes, “Well I don’t know about you, but could YOU register what’s happening and run from their headquarters all the way out in less than 10 seconds? No? Then shut it!”   
Suguru looked away and K smirked.   
“Stop arguing,” Mika exclaimed, “Think about how we get my husband back!”   
K sighed.   
“We don’t have anything,” he looked at his notes, “We just know he told his secretary to take the rest of the day off, because he was leaving and wouldn’t be returning. We don’t know where he was heading, but probably home, to you Mika-san.”   
Mika shook her head, “No, it couldn’t be. Yesterday he mentioned some meeting he had today afternoon.”   
“Meeting? What meeting?” K asked confused, “With whom? Maybe they have something with the kidnapping…”   
“Fuck,” Eiri swore and pulled out his cell phone.   
“What it is?” Mika asked confused.   
Eiri dialed Shuichi’s phone, “Seguchi was supposed to meet with Shuichi. I have to call that idiot…”   
He waited seconds, listening to the dialing tone, waiting for Shuichi to pick up and ignoring the sudden onslaught of questions.   
“He is not picking up,” the blonde growled, and tried again.   
“Do you think he was kidnapped too?” Mika asked worriedly.   
“Hello? Yuki?” came Shuichi’s voice.   
“Where the fuck are you?!” Eiri barked.   
“I was supposed to meet with Tohma-san,” Shuichi said, “But he was late. He probably had another meeting, so I came to look for him at NG.”   
K then pulled out the phone from Eiri’s hand, “Where are you?”   
“Eh? K?” Shuichi was confused, “Why are you with Yuki? Where are you guys?”   
Eiri grabbed the phone back, “Just answer the question, brat.”   
“I am in the lobby…” Shuichi said.   
“Don’t move,” Eiri said and pushed the disconnect button.   
Then he turned to others, “I am gonna pick him up.”   
Eiri walked out of the room and headed towards the lobby. There he found confused Shuichi, standing by the receptionist desk, with his cell phone still in his hand.   
“Yuki, what’s happening?” Shuichi asked.   
Eiri grabbed him by wrist and dragged him back to the office, where others waited.   
Shuichi seeing K, Mika and Suguru asked, “What the hell is happening? Why are you all here?”  
“Tohma has…” Mika started, here eyes filling with tears.   
But Suguru lost his nerves, jumped to the singer, grabbed him by the front of his shirt, “Tohma has been kidnapped! Why were you meeting with him? Do you have something with it?!”   
Shuichi’s eyes widened, “Wha..?”  
K pulled Suguru away from Shuichi, who sunk to the ground.   
“Now now, calm down. Let’s not make any assumptions,” he said, “Seguchi may have been kidnapped on the way to meet Shuichi, but that does NOT mean Shuichi was the one to do that.”   
“Of course he wasn’t, it’s Shuichi,” Yuki growled,   
Suguru glared at Eiri, but then sighed, “I… know, sorry. It’s just…”   
Meanwhile Mika helped shocked Shuichi to sit on couch.   
K took out his phone, “Unfortunately now we are back to the beginning. We have no clues. I will try to pull some strings at the police force, but…”   
He was interrupted by a knock.   
Everyone’s heads snapped to the door.   
K crept to the door and reached towards his gun holster.   
Then he opened the door and with one fluid motion pulled out the gun and pointed it at the petite woman standing behind the door.   
The woman, who was usually sitting at the receptionist desk, eeped at the sight of the gun.   
“What do you want?” K barked question.   
“I…” the receptionist stuttered, “Some man dropped a letter. It was addressed to Seguchi Natsuki, but I don’t know him, so I thought maybe Mika-sama would know…”   
Everyone’s faces showed confusion.   
“Natsuki?” Mika rolled the name on her tongue and slowly reached for the letter.   
But before she could even touch the envelope, Shuichi snatched and tore letter open.   
“What the hell Shindou?!” Suguru exclaimed.   
Shuichi scanned the contents of the letter, his eyes widened. Before anyone could do anything, the pink haired singer dropped the letter and bolted out of the door.   
Others quickly overcame their shock and followed him. As they exited the building, they saw Shuichi running across the street, with several cars honking at him and barely missing him. And then he disappeared from everyone’s sight.   
“What the hell was that?!” Eiri growled.   
Mika bit her lip in worry, “Why would he do that?”   
“Let’s see what made that idiot run like that,” K said dryly, as he pulled out the letter, which he grabbed on the way out. He smoothed it out for everyone to see what was written in there:   
Hello, Natsuki-kun.   
I have your brother, we have lot’s of fun. Join us at our favorite playground.   
Your dear Masa-chan  
“Who the fuck is this Masa-chan?” Eiri asked disgusted.   
“Wait! How can Shuichi know, where was Natsuki’s favorite playground?” Suguru gasped.   
“Shut up everyone and get to the car!” K commanded, Suguru wanted to protest, but K put a gun to his head, “Didn’t you hear, pipsqueak? Get to the car, we are after them. Heh, I knew sewing trackers into your clothes will come handy.”


	8. Chapter 8

As Tohma came to, he let out a long pained moan. Practically his whole body hurt. His head was pounding and he couldn’t feel his arms.   
“Ugh,” Tohma let out another moan as he cracked his eyes open.   
He blinked in confusion as his eyes adjusted. He was somewhere outside. He wasn’t even on the ground, as some would expect when waking up. The blonde looked around, and saw, that his arms were tightly tied above his head, holding him in upright position, which was probably the reason, he couldn’t feel his arms.   
Tohma stood up straighter in attempt to relieve his arms and shoulders a bit, but he hissed as a sharp pain shot through him.   
‘Definitely dislocated,’ the musician thought.   
“Hooo,” came a male voice, “You are awake?”   
Tohma’s eyes snapped towards the voice and saw man, most likely in his forties, grinning at him. He was somewhat familiar, but Tohma didn’t know where to place him.   
“You probably don’t remember me,” the man walked closer, “Going by the confusion slapped on your face, so let my introduce myself. Tanaka Masaru at your service.”   
Masaru even bowed after his introduction.   
Tohma’s eyes widened in horror.   
“Shouldn’t you be in prison?!” he spat out, “What are you doing here?!”   
Masaru smiled, “Got out on good behavior and thought I would say hello. To have a little chit-chat and catch up.”   
Tohma glared.   
“Don’t fuck with me,” he hissed, “How dare you show your face?! After what you did?”   
“After what I did?” Masaru exclaimed, “You send an innocent man to jail and I am the bad guy?”   
Tohma struggled against his restrains, wanting to punch the other man.   
“Innocent?! Don’t make me laugh!” Tohma spat, “Natsuki…”   
“Yes, Natsuki!” Masaru grinned, “The sweet little Natsu-chan. We can’t leave him out, he would be sad. It will be so nostalgic, meeting at the same playground we used to play. Just me, you and Natsu-chan.”   
“So this is where you buried his corpse?!” Tohma growled.   
“Corpse?” Masaru blinked confused.   
“After you killed him, you motherfucker,” Tohma attempted to kick Masaru, but didn’t get far.   
“Kill?” Masaru let that word roll of his tongue, “How can you say that when…”   
He trailed off and blinked. Then he burst out laughing.   
“You mean, you don’t know?” Masaru managed to say between gasps of laugh.   
“What?” Tohma barked.   
“Oh my god, you really don’t know,” Masaru’s stomach was now hurting.   
“Know what, you fucker?” the blonde was enraged by Masaru’s mocking.   
Masaru theatrically sighed, “You have such foul mouth.”   
Then he pulled a duck tape from his pocket and before Tohma could do anything, he put it on his mouth.  
“Ah, that’s better,” Masaru grinned proudly.   
He threw the tape away and pulled out gun from his vest.   
“But you know, I have a surprise for you,” he cocked the gun and raised his hand so that he looked as if posing for a photo, “But you know… Natsu-chan is lively for a corpse. He looks that he has fun. But he will have even more fun, once he arrives. Then we will all have so much fun.”   
Tohma’s eyes widened. What the hell was the psychopath saying? How can Natsuki come if he was..? Was it possible that he was actually alive? And he didn’t contact him? But why? And more importantly, how did this bastard find out? What was he planning.   
Tohma was pulled out of his thought by Masaru.   
“And the last guest guest arrives to the party,” he said gleefully.   
Tohma turned in the direction Masaru was motioning. And there, just at the edge of the light from the lamps, was standing someone. Unfortunately just the feet were illuminated, so all Tohma could see was pair of sneakers. But he could hear the gasps, as the person was trying to catch a breath, probably from running.   
Could it be? Could Natsuki be really alive? And just within his reach? Tohma could feel his knees weaken.   
“Ohoho, don’t just stand there, Natsu-chan,” Masaru waved, “Come here and greet your onii-chan.”   
Tohma could see the feet shift a little, hesitating, and then step forward, into the light, revealing all too familiar mop of pink hair over violet eyes.   
A wave of relief and disappointment rushed through Tohma. Ha, he knew that Masaru was bluffing. Natsuki was dead and now the mad man was dragging other into this mess. But if Shuichi is here, K-san is probably somewhere around too, and that meant end for Masaru.   
“Not gonna say hello?” Masaru teased, “I thought you were raised better.”   
Shuichi took a shaky breath and looked down, “H-Hello… Masa-kun.”   
‘Huh?’ Tohma thought, ‘How can Shuichi know Natsuki’s nickname for Masaru? I don’t think even Mika or Ryuichi and Noriko know…’  
Masaru tsked, “You are still wearing those stupid things? Throw them away, I love your eyes.”   
Shuichi flinched, but didn’t say anything. Then he slowly reached up, to pull out his contact lenses. That proved to be a challenge, because his hands were shaking quite a bit. He even poked himself once. But after few tries, he finally got out. Not knowing what he should with the colored plastic, he shook his hand and threw it on the ground.   
Tohma’s eyes widened in horror. Shuichi had contact lenses. He didn’t know he wore purple lenses, because he always had purple eyes. But now, he removed them, he revealed that he had green eyes. It was deep shade of green, not unlike Tohma’s own.   
“Now now,” Masaru waved, “Let’s sit and have a bit fun. Hora, there is a swing. Neh, Natsu-chan, do you remember, how I used to push you on that swing? Go sit there, I will push you again.”  
Shuichi stared at Masaru, but didn’t move.   
Masaru pointed his gun at Shuichi, “NOW, Natsu-chan.”  
Shuichi flinched, but went to sit on the swing.   
Masaru grinned and stood behind Shuichi, who shivered. Masaru pushed him a little, the swing squeaked as it moved.   
“Ha ha, isn’t this fun, Natsu-chan?” Masaru leaned on Shuichi’s shoulder, hugging him from behind.   
Shuichi tensed.  
“But you know what would be more fun?” Masaru asked and let hand wander lower.   
Shuichi gasped and thrust his elbow backwards, hitting Masaru in the stomach. The man doubled over in pain, but the pinkette didn’t wait and bolted across the playground. However he didn’t get far, as he was tackled by Masaru and the both fell to the ground.   
“Where do you think you are going, Natsu-chan?!” Masaru screamed.   
Shuichi struggled, and managed land blow on Masaru’s face, but he didn’t care. He just struck Shuichi back. Even though Shuichi wiggled around, he just couldn’t shake off the older man.   
“Let me go!” he exclaimed.   
“Let you go?” Masaru laughed, “Now that the main fun begins? Shut up, you little bitch, and I promise you that you will like it!”   
Panic rose in Shuichi as he felt Masaru’s hand under his shirt and that somehow gave him enough strength, to hit Masaru in the jaw strong enough for the other man to lose his balance. Shuichi didn’t waste any time, and scrambled to his feet, only to hear a gun shot and fall back down, his eyes closed.   
“Not so fast Natsu-chan,” Masaru growled, but Shuichi didn’t move, “Are? My my, I didn’t even hit you. Such a brave boy you are, Natsu-chan. Fainting just from a little noise. But that’s okay, at least you won’t run away anymore…”   
Masaru rolled Shuichi onto his back and started to unbutton his pants.   
Suddenly Shuichi’s eyes snapped open and he kicked Masaru in the groin, the older man howling in pain. The singer pushed him away and instant he was back on his feet, his hands finding a fallen branch and with all his might he struck Masaru’s head.   
Masaru immediately crumpled down, unconscious.   
Shuichi just stood there, watching warily for any movement. His breath came out in jerky gasps.   
A few seconds came buy and nothing happened. Shuichi dropped the branch and ran to Tohma.   
“R-rope, rope rope,” he mumbled as he fumbled with the rope tied around Tohma’s wrists.   
Tohma let out strangled moan and Shuichi tensed. But then he started to pull at the rope again.   
Suddenly a rough hand grasped the back of Shuichi’s hair, yanked him backwards and then slammed him face first against a nearby metal pole.   
A sickly loud crack was heard and Shuichi crumpled to the ground like a broken doll, with face now red and purple.   
“He he, going somewhere, Na-tsu-chan?” Masaru giggled, standing above the unconscious singer.   
Masaru completely ignored struggling Tohma, his eyes never leaving Shuichi. His hands massaged his member through the pants, before deciding to unbutton them.   
“And now, for the finale,” Masaru smirked, kneeled beside Shuichi, grabbed his pants and started to pull them down.


	9. Chapter 9

Tohma flinched as a gunshot rang.   
Masaru screamed as a bullet carved itself into his shoulder. He scrambled to his feet, pointing gun in the direction from which the bullet came.   
There stood K with his magnum pointed at him. Beside him were Yuki and Mika. He couldn’t see anyone else.   
“If I were you, I wouldn’t move,” Yuki said calmly.   
“Me?” Masaru asked amused, “You make another step and your precious boy is the thing of the past.”   
And with that he pointed his gun at Shuichi’s head, making everyone freeze.   
“So nice, you came to enjoy the show,” Yuki growled at Masaru’s comment, “But this was supposed to be only for our dear brothers, so you are kinda intruding, and I am not into broad audience.”   
He zipped up his fly, and discreetly slipped something from his pocket.  
The three newcomers were too preoccupied with analyzing the brothers comment to notice it, until Masaru said: “So lady and gentlemen, au revoir.”   
And with that he threw what he had at those three.   
It only took split second for K to shout: “Grenade!”   
Yuki moved to shield his sister, but K tackled them both to the ground.  
Next thing they knew, the world around them exploded in bright light and loud noise.   
For several seconds nobody moved, than K jumped to his feet and murmured, “Flash grenade, damnit!”   
He tried to run after Masaru, but quickly realized that the man was gone.   
When Eiri helped his sister up K was already by Shuichi, checking on his vitals.   
“He is alive,” said K, “But what the hell happened? There is so much blood, he has probably broken nose…”  
Mika quickly ran to her husband, who looked ready to faint, “Dear… Eiri quickly.”   
Eiri glanced between Tohma and Shuichi.   
K stood up, “I will take care of that, you can carefully put him into stabilized position, besides, you don’t have knife on you anyway, do you?”   
Eiri looked worried and relieved at the same time, however he went to follow K’s orders, while the older man pulled out a small pocket knife.   
Mika pulled at the rope in frustration.   
K approached her, “Allow me, Mrs. Seguchi.”   
He quickly pulled away the tape on Tohma’s mouth, who groaned and whined: “Natsuki.”  
“Eh?” Mika blinked confused.   
Tohma sucked in breath, “Is Natsuki okay?”  
K and Mika looked at each other in surprise as K cut the ropes holding Tohma up, and the shorter swayed.   
“Easy, Seguchi,” K caught him, but Tohma pushed him away.   
“I need to see if Natsuki is okay!”   
He sunk to his knees beside Eiri, “How is he?!”   
Yuki opened his mouth, but K’s hand on his should stopped him. He looked up and when his and K’s eyes met, he made a space for he American, so he could look at Shuichi.   
“There shouldn’t be much damage,” K said calmly, “Some bruises and cuts, probably broken nose and concussion.”   
He took out his cell phone and turned on the camera light. Then reached towards Shuichi’s face and pushed the singer’s eyelid up, to see if the irises will react to light, but quickly pulled his hand away.   
“What the fuck?!” he breathed out and looked towards Eiri, who was looking back at him with the same confused face.   
“What it is?” Mika leaned towards them.   
Yuki sucked in breath, “His… Shuichi’s eyes… are green.”   
Mika looked at the singer with wide eyes and then back at her brother.   
Then there was pained groan coming from the singer.   
“Natsuki! Shuichi!” all four adults called and leaned to Shuichi.   
The singer cracked his eyes open, and everyone started to yell all over each other.   
“I am sorry,” Shuichi whined, “Please don’t hurt me, I’m sorry…”   
“Shuichi, it’s me,” Yuki put his hand on Shuichi’s shoulder, but the singer turned away and started vomiting and then passed out again.   
K handed Yuki a handkerchief, “He has concussion for sure… We have to get him to a hospital. You take him and I will go in front in case that bastard is waiting near our car.”   
Yuki gently wiped Shuichi’s face and then picked him up bridal style, while his sister helped Tohma. They headed in direction of their car, which was guarded by Suguru, with K walking a few steps in front of them with his gun ready   
Seeing them, Suguru opened the doors and stepped out, “You found him? What happened?! How…”   
Mika shook her head, “I am confused too, and want some answers, but not now. Both Tohma and Shuichi are hurt and we are going to the hospital.”   
Suguru nodded and about thirty seconds later they were all boarded and K slammed the gas pedal. They were at the hospital probably in half time it would normally taken, and as soon as the nurse at the reception saw Shuichi and Tohma, doctors rushed both injured musicians away.   
But before the doctor in charge of Shuichi sprinted away, K leaned to him and whispered something in his ear. The doctor looked at him in confusion, but then he nodded and went after his patient.   
K, Yuki, Mika and Suguru were left to wait. Which the novelist hated with utter passion. The hospital halls were dull and smelled with disinfectants, which only remainded him of his own stays in this dreaded building. He groaned and pulled out a cigarette but was elbowed by his sister.   
“No smoking in hospitals or around pregnant women,” she pocketed the cigarette.  
“Right,” Yuki rolled his eyes, then he realized Mika looked unusually pale, “Hey, you okay? Should I call someone?”  
Mika shook her head, “No… I’m fine. It’s only stress… it’s not every day I get my husband kidnapped and your lover beaten half to death and almost raped.”   
Yuki in some sudden emotion hugged Mika, who looked ready to cry.   
Soon a nurse came, “Family of Seguchi Tohma-sama? You can go see him.”   
As soon as they entered Tohma’s room, Suguru made beeline towards his cousin, “What the hell happened? Are you okay? Who did such thing?”   
Tohma sighed, “I… I am fine, just dislodged shoulders and some bruises, they only want me to stay here for a night on observation and I will be released tomorrow. . That bastard Tanaka came to get revenge and Natsuki had to suffer for that…”   
The rest of the group looked at each other in remorse, before Mika rested her hand on Tohma’s shoulder gently, “Tohma, it was stressful evening and you are confused…”   
“What do you mean, confused?!” Tohma bristled, and suddenly someone knocked.   
K pulled out his gun and opened the door, revealing a nurse, who froze at the sight of a gun, only relaxing when K pocketed it again.   
“I… I am sorry sirs,” she stuttered nervously, “I h-have message from doctor Matsuda, for y-you. He said, that there were no signs of any contact lenses whatsoever.”   
Then she bowed and quickly walked away.   
“What does that mean?” Mika asked confused.   
K ran his hand through his hair, “It means… that Shuichi has naturally green eyes.”   
“What?!” called Yuki, Mika and Suguru.   
“How the fuck is that possible?” Yuki asked, “I never saw him with any other color but purple.”   
“He had purple contact lenses,” Tohma said calmly, “I saw him pull them out of his eyes. It shouldn’t be so surprising, most of our family has green eyes.”   
“Shuichi is not Natsuki,” Yuki shook his head vehemently, “It’s not possible! Natsuki was killed ten years ago!”   
“Yes he is! How can you deny it in front of the evidence?!” yelled Tohma.   
“What evidence?” Yuki and Tohma glared at each other.   
“Calm down,” Mika tried to calm them down.   
“K!” Tohma turned to the American, “You said it yourself, Na- Shuichi’s natural eye color is green. I am sure, you can see some physical resemblance to me. What is Natsuki’s blood type?”   
K sighed, already guessing where Tohma was heading, and was feeling kind of stupid that he didn’t see the connection before, “AB minus, the rarest type, only 0,7% people worldwide have it, and only 0,1% Asians.”  
Tohma smirked triumphal, “And what is Shuichi’s blood type?”   
“AB minus,” said K, “But I still want to make one hundred percent sure. I ask an acquaintance to do DNA test.”   
Tohma nodded, “You do that.”   
The other three stared at them in shock.   
“How is that possible?” Mika whispered in awe.   
“It can’t be,” Yuki shook his head in disbelief, “It’s not possible. You are all crazy!”   
Mika reached to him, but he shunned her away.   
Then he marched out of the room, “I need a smoke.”   
Mika sat down on Tohma’s bed, “It’s too much… Everything is crazy… Maybe I am dreaming.”   
“Mika-san,” Tohma rubbed her back to calm her down.   
They stayed like that for a few minutes, everyone in their own thoughts, when a woman barged into the room, at which K pointed his gun at her, which she ignored and yelled: “Where the hell is my son?! What did you do to him?!”   
“Your son?” asked Suguru, “You are crazy miss, we don’t know anything about your son…”   
“Where is Shuichi?” Hiro entered behind that woman together with Shuichi’s sister, Maiko.   
“Oh,” everyone realized that it must be Shuichi’s mother so K pocketed the gun again.   
“Where is my son?” Midori yelled again.   
Tohma glared, “Your son? You are mistaken. That’s my brother!”   
The newcomers looked at each other in confusion.   
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Midori was peeved that nobody was telling her if Shuichi was okay.   
Maiko gasped, “No way! So he told you?”  
Tohma looked at the teen, “Told me what?”   
“That he is your brother,” Maiko smiled.   
“What are you talking about Maiko-chan?” Hiro asked her, “How can Shuichi be Seguchi-san’s brother? Midori-san is too young to be Seguchi’s mother… And you didn’t say anything about more siblings or cousins.”  
Maiko rolled her eyes, “Shuichi is adopted, remember?”  
Maiko blinked at Hiro’s confusion, “Wait… Shuichi did tell you at some point that he is adopted, right? Right? Oh shit, he didn’t, did he? Oh my god, I shouldn’t have blurted it out like that!”   
She quickly covered her mouth, but everyone was already trying to process this new information.   
A familiar nurse from before walked in, to be greeted by group of confused and frustrated people.   
“Uh, I thought, you would like to know that Shindou-sama has awoken,” she said carefully, not wanting to get gun pointed at her again.   
Immediately everyone started to yell over everyone, asking about his wellbeing, his room and so.   
She bowed, “I am very sorry… but the patient has asked the doctor to refuse any visitors. “   
She was bombarded again with: “I am his brother! I am his mother! We are family!”  
She quickly shook her head, “I am sorry, but no visitors today.”


	10. Chapter 10

Shuichi groaned and slowly opened his eyes. He was in an unfamiliar surroundings, but quickly guessed he was in a hospital, from all the white around him and especially the smell of disinfectants. He tried to sit up, but his head was pounding too much when he changed position, so he rather stayed as he was.   
“Wha..?” he searched his memory for what happened.   
And then it all came to him. Tohma’s kidnapping, and Masaru. Oh god, Masaru was back. And Tohma knew…   
Shuichi shot up to sitting position. His head spinning to the point, the pressure worsened, to the point he thought he will throw up. He covered his mouth.   
When he was sure, that the feeling subsided, and the headache lightened a bit, he pulled the hand away and found it bloody.   
“Shit,” the singer touched his face again, and realized his nose was bleeding.   
He quickly pinched his nose and started to look around for some tissue, or cloth, that he could use to stop the flow.   
Then the door to the room opened and a nurse walked in.   
“Oh, you are awake,” she smiled, but quickly noticed the blood.   
The nurse quickly put down her chart, “Don’t touch anything.”   
She quickly fetched some wet towels, put one on the back of the singer’s neck, also pushing him to lie down, and with other she wiped all the blood.   
“It’s okay,” she whispered calmly, “You have broken nose and you moving around and stressing out just broke a blood vessel. Nothing to worry about.”   
Shuichi nodded, “T-Thank you…”  
“You are welcome,” the nurse reached beside Shuichi’s bed and pushed a button on the wall, “I am calling Matsuda-sensei to check on you.”   
It only took few seconds for the doctor to come.   
“Hello Shindou-san, good to see you awake,” Matsuda said, “You came in quite a shape young lad. Got into fight? Or… someone from your family?”  
“W-What? No! I… We… were attacked,” Shuichi said slowly.   
“Good, good, I am sorry, but I had to ask,” the doctor pulled out stethoscope out of his pocket and quickly checked the singers heart, then checked his eyes with a small light.   
He asked few more questions about how Shuichi felt and the pinkette told him about his head.   
“You have a concussion, so I would be more surprised if you didn’t have headache,” the doctor chuckled, “But don’t worry, now that you are awake, we can give you some painkillers.”   
Doctor Matsuda looked at the nurse, who only nodded and left to fetch painkillers, that were already prepared at the nurse office.   
“Just so you know, there is someone waiting to see you, quite a lot of them actually,” Matsuda said.  
Shuichi’s eyes widened.   
“N-No…” he whispered, and bit his lower lip.   
They were here. Why where they here? Tohma, who knew, there was no way he didn’t know. And he probably said Yuki. And K. And Hiro. And everyone else. They knew and were surely pissed. He… can’t see them. He had to get away, or they will hate him forever because he is liar.   
“What,” doctor Matsuda blinked in confusion. Wasn’t someone supposed to be happy that their family came to visit them at the hospital?  
“I can’t!” Shuichi shot up and tried to get out of bed, but Matsuda quickly stopped him.  
“Hey hey, you have to lie down,” he was fighting struggling Shuichi.   
“T-they can’t c-come,” Shuichi was panicking at the loss of his mobility.   
Something dropped behind the doctor, who looked behind and saw the nurse who dropped the painkillers.   
“I will bring anesthesia!” she bolted back out.   
It only took a few seconds for her to come back with and injection with a clear fluid. And after a short struggling they managed to administer the anesthesia to the panicking singer.   
“It’s okay, Shindou-san,” the nurse was soothing Shuichi in a calm voice, “You are in a hospital, Nothing will happen to you here. You are safe.”   
Shuichi’s struggles slowly ceased as he slowly slipped into unconsciousness.   
“Well, that went well,” Matsuda sighed.   
“Matsuda-sensei, what happened?” the young woman asked confused.   
“I am not sure either, Suzuki-kun,” the doctor shook his head, “As soon as I mentioned his family, he started to panic.”   
Nurse Suzuki blinked.   
“I… think we should keep Shindou-san on ‘no visitors’ for now,” Matsuda ran his hand through his hair.   
“I… understand sir,” Suzuki nodded. 

\- G - G - G – 

Tohma was signing his discharge papers and was in a quite foul mood. Even the day after he was still not allowed to see Shuichi.   
He nodded to the nurses and quickly walked out of the hospital. K was already waiting for him beside his car, as Tohma was not allowed to drive.   
“Morning boss,” K smirked as he opened the back door for Tohma.  
Tohma sat in the car, and immediately was hug-attacked by Ryuichi.   
“Toooohma!” the singer latched onto the blonde, “They said you were kidnapped and hurt!”   
Tohma patted Ryuichi on his head, “I am alright now. It wasn’t that bad, but Shuichi…”   
He stopped abruptly not sure what to say, Ryuichi sniffled louder.   
“Hey speaking of that ping goofball,” K said behind the wheel and reached into the compartment on the passenger’s side.   
From there he pulled out an envelope, “Here. I have something for you.”   
Tohma blinked surprised, “Is that..? How could you do it in one day?”   
“I pulled some strings,” said K as Tohma took the envelope and opened it.   
Tohma started to read the results of DNA test. It only confirmed what he knew. But seeing it like this, on paper, something in him broke. He hung his head and a sob wrecked his body.   
Ryuichi seeing Tohma in this state switched to his serious personality, and pulled the blonde into tight hug. He heard about the situation from K, but didn’t really believe it till now.   
“Tohma, I tried everything I could, just to make really sure,” K sighed, “Blood type, comparing Shuichi’s hair to Natsuki’s samples that we had from 10 years ago, comparing him with you, I even did a test on Shuichi’s family…”  
“I can’t believe he was so close,” Tohma whimpered, “Why? Why didn’t he say something?”   
“I don’t know,” Ryuichi said.   
“How many times he looked me in the eyes and said nothing!” Tohma was almost screaming now.   
“I know, I know,” Ryuichi whispered soothingly, “But I also know he must love you. Why else would he just run to help you? When he knew what awaited him?”   
Tohma sniffled as Ryuichi continued, “You should look at it from his point of view. I think what happened ten years ago still impacts him. Maybe he was afraid. Maybe he had amnesia or something. Who know what really happened that time. We will have to wait for Shuichi to say it himself. Can you wait till then?”  
Tohma, visibly calmer now, pulled out a pack of paper tissues and started wiping his face, “Y-Yes. I am sorry for… my breakdown…”   
Ryuichi shook his head, “Nah, this was big. And I am kind of glad you didn’t bottle it up inside, like you usually do.”   
“But I still don’t get why he…” Tohma tried to say, but was interrupted by Ryuchi’s finger on his lips.   
“Hush, I said wait till Shuichi is ready to tell you,” Ryuichi said seriously and Tohma nodded. 

\- G - G - G – 

Shuichi was attended by different nurses and didn’t see familiar face until it was actually after visitor hours. And even then it was the doctor from previous day, whose name he didn’t remember.   
“Hello, Shindou-san,” doctor Matsuda came to Shuichi’s bed and quickly looked over the chart that hung at the end of the bed, “You seem better than you were yesterday.   
“Thank you, doctor,” Shuichi whispered.   
“I am sorry that I couldn’t come sooner,” Matsuda smiled, “It was quite night we both had, wouldn’t you say? I needed to sleep it off a bit, and it looks I overslept…”   
The doctor chuckled a bit, but then he got serious. He pulled a chair closer and sat down.   
“But let’s talk about you for a bit,” he looked Shuichi in the eyes, “We didn’t allow you any visitors as per your yesterday’s request. Your injuries weren’t all that serious and could have been discharged today, but I… requested for you to stay longer. You are safe on the hospital’s grounds. If there is something you want to tell me…”   
Shuichi blinked confusedly, “What? Like what?”   
Matsuda sighed, “You freaked out pretty badly at the mention of you family yesterday.”   
Shuichi froze.   
Matsuda put a hand on Shuichi’s shoulder, “You are doing it again, Shindou-san. I told you, you are safe in this hospital. Did you argue with a family member? Did they do this to you? Did something like this happen before?”   
Shuichi’s mouth hung open.   
“What? NO!” he quickly said, “Nothing like that! It was… It wasn’t them… Me and my… boss got attacked… and then… My found something I didn’t want them to know. Or I did, but not like this… I don’t know… But they definitely didn’t beat me!”   
Doctor Matsuda looked skeptically, “Oh… are you sure? You can tell me, you don’t have to worry about anything.”   
Shuichi shook his head, “Yeah… They wouldn’t do something like that.”   
Matsuda nodded, “Okay then. I am sorry, that I was noisy. I misunderstood the situation.”   
Shuichi smiled, “Nah. Actually I think you are cool, worrying about your patients.”   
“Thank you,” Matsuda grinned, “Now that this is cleared, I will sign your discharge papers, and you can go home tomorrow after breakfast. It wouldn’t do to let you go this late, so have a peaceful dreams, Shindou-san.”   
Shuichi nodded, “Oh, would it be possible to borrow from someone charger? My phone’s battery died, and I don’t have anything with me…”   
“I will ask the nurses if they have compatible charger,” Matsuda said as he looked at Shuichi’s phone and left.

\- G - G - G – 

The next day Shuichi was signing discharge papers. He smiled at the nurse, checked if he had everything and stepped back.   
He pulled out his phone and pushed a button to turn it on, silently thanking the nurse who had the same type of phone and allowed him to borrow her charger. When the phone booted up, he entered his PIN code and waited.   
And was disappointed. There wasn’t any missed calls, or messages.   
“They must be really pissed,” murmured Shuichi, as he contemplated what should he do.   
Or rather, where should go. He probably couldn’t go to Yuki’s house, he had the feeling that the blonde wouldn’t take Shuichi’s betrayal very good. He was too ashamed to run to Hiro as he did usually. And Tohma… Shuichi chewed on his lower lip. Should he still call the older man by his first name? What if he was so angry, that he didn’t want Shuichi be so familiar with him?  
“Hopefully mom won’t throw me out too,” Shuichi sighed, as he checked his wallet that he had enough change for the tube.  
“Going somewhere?” a familiar voice asked.   
Shuichi’s eyes widened and bolted.   
Or tried, because a hand grabbed him by collar, “Oh no you don’t!”   
And then he was dragged by that person out of the hospital building and thrown into the passenger seat. Before he could do anything, the person dashed around the car, jumped behind the wheel and slammed the gas pedal.


	11. Chapter 11

Shuichi’s survival instincts kicked in, and he quickly buckled himself in. Just in time as the expensive western car peeled out of the parking lot. He also grabbed the handle on the door, and squeezed it, in hopes, he wouldn’t be thrown around when the driver would make sharp turn. Which were sure to come, as he knew their driving style.   
They drove a few minutes in awkward silence. Shuichi didn’t even know what to say, should he apologize or even say something? He still didn’t know if they knew, but the rigid posture and aura of annoyance said it all. So he stayed silent, waiting for the other person to speak up first.   
And he didn’t have to wait for long, as Mika glanced at him.   
“So…” she started, her voice dripping in annoyance, “Why did you do it? Why did you lie?”   
“I…” Shuichi started, but didn’t know what to say. He knew some questioning would be coming, but he still wasn’t ready.   
“Well?” Mika pressed, “Did you enjoy his suffering?!”   
“NO!” Shuichi interrupted her, but quickly closed his mouth.   
“What then?” the woman shot back.  
“I… didn’t know,” Shuichi whispered, “I thought… I thought I would be in way… that he didn’t need me… that he… hated me…”   
“What?” all anger left Mika, “Why are you saying this?”  
Shuichi leaned his forehead on the door window, refusing to look at Mika.   
“I begged him to take me with him… but he left me here. Here where I wouldn’t bother him. With that…”   
Shuichi shook his head.   
“And then, when we met, I couldn’t just say something. What could have I said?” Shuichi continued, “He was happy. He was married. I had no place in this equation.”   
Mika couldn’t help but stare. Did Shuichi really think this way? She never saw this side of him.   
“I guess, I really am shit at reading atmosphere,” Shuichi chuckled darkly, then gasped, “Eyes on the road!”  
Mika blinked and looked forward. She noticed the car was swaying into the opposite side and quickly turned the wheel, to get on the correct side. Without another word Mika hit gas pedal and turned her whole attention to the road.   
After a few minutes of silence, Mika glanced at Shuichi.   
“Did I ever tell you how I met Tohma?” she asked, and when Shuichi shook his head she took a breath and started, “Well, it was in Kyoto…” 

\- G - G - G – 

Mika was sweeping in front of their family shrine. The school was out for the summer and her father didn’t even give her time to recuperate after she came back home and put her to use. And here she thought that once she started university, she would be exempt from shrine duties. But then, her little brothers were too young to take up priest duties.   
Mika sighed. It was so hot in the sun here priestess clothes. But it wont be long. She only has to sweep and then check on fortune telling for potentional customers.   
As she walked towards the stand with fortune tellings, she noticed a lone figure standing by the well with bell. Usually there wasn’t many people this time of year, and those who came, usually wanted here father, head priest, to perform some taks. So she changed here direction and headed to the man, to ask if he needed anything. As she walked, she looked the man over. From behind, she only saw that he was about her height, maybe a little taller. He had a hat, but she could see some blonde strands.   
“Hello,” Mika greeted the man, who turned around in surprise.   
Now she could see he was a man in his early twenties with light blonde hair, which didn’t seem died, as it went well with his forest green eyes. Which were also rimmed with red.   
“I…” Mika started, quite mesmerized by the man’s appearance, “I am a priestess here, can I help you with anything?”   
“Ah, no thank you,” said the man, “Am I a bother?”   
‘A Tokyoite,’ thought Mika as she heard man’s accent, “No no, I just. Most people want to ask my father to perform a service for them, but he is not here right now, so I can call him here, if you want.”   
The man shook his head, “Thank you, but there is no need. I just came here to clear my mind.”   
Mika was usually good at guessing someone’s character and their mood. Her younger brother, Eiri, said it was almost scary with how much accuracy she could tell when there was something wrong. And right now she felt that this man had problems, which caused him so much sadness it was almost breaking him. His red eyes, his posture and even the soft tone of his voice, were telling her that he was almost at his limits and wouldn’t mind if someone offered a hand.   
Mika gripped the broom she was holding a little tighter. Then she walked to the well.   
“Mind if I join you?” she asked and stood beside the man.  
Then she pulled the bell gently, clapped her hands twice and started to pray. She prayed for her deceased mother, and asked her to watch over them. Especially after her youngest brother, Tatsuha, who took her death the hardest and refused to talk to any of them for almost a year. He was only now opening back up, when he started attending elementary school.   
The man mimicked her and together they prayed.   
After a few minutes Mika looked at her partner, whose shoulders were shaking “I’m sorry to have disturbed you. You just reminded me of my brothers, from when our mother passed, I didn’t pray for her in so long…”  
“That’s okay,” he said, “We were both praying for family members then.”   
“I’m sorry for your loss,” Mika bowed a little.   
“Thank you, my condolences to you too,” said the man, “I… when… when did you lose your mother?”   
Mika smiled softly, “It’s already two years.”   
“Oh, my parents died five years ago and it still hurts,” whispered the man, “Me and my… brother…”   
The man started but suddenly got quiet.   
Mika wanted to encourage him, so she smiled and asked, “So you have brother? How old is he?”   
“I… had a brother,” the man whispered, “He… got killed about two months ago…”   
“Oh my god,” Mika gasped, “What happened?”   
She quickly covered her mouth in embarrassment. She didn’t mean to pry. But it seemed the man didn’t mind. It was as if the gates opened and his emotions flooded out into the open. His face showed sadness, devastation, anger, defeat and so much more.   
“I… It was all my fault,” he said, “I had to go on a… business trip for 6 months overseas. And a psychologist said it would be better for him to stay in school instead of hiring tutor and take him with me. So I hired a man, a babysitter so to speak, who was watching him while I was away. I thought I checked him thoroughly, but he.. he…”  
The man confessed everything. How his brother was missing, when he came back. How the police got involved, and what they found in his apartment. And about how his brother had been declared dead.   
By the end of it, the man was crying on Mika’s shoulder, while she was holding him tightly. She didn’t say anything. Sometimes silence and listening did more good than any words she could say. And she was sure her voice would have cracked if she attempted to speak, her eyes full of unshed tears for the man hugging her for dear life and for his little brother.   
They stayed like that for a few minutes. Then the man pulled away.   
“I’m sorry, I’m not normally like this,” he said, “I didn’t want to bother you, a complete stranger, with my personal problems.”   
Mika put her hand on his shoulder and squeezed gently, “It’s okay. People tend to say that miko’s are angels, so maybe I’m your guardian angel? Oh, my name is Uesugi Mika, by the way.”   
The man smiled softly, “I am… Fujisaki Tohma.”   
Mika grinned, “Now we are not strangers anymore. Hey, do you have a cell phone with you?”   
Tohma raised an eyebrow, but hander her his phone.   
She fuddled with it for a bit and gave it back.   
“I put my number in it, so… if you need a listening ear, you can call me,” Mika smiled again.   
Over the next week Tohma started to come to the almost every day, mostly to pray but also to talk to Mika. And in the evening, they wrote each other short messages.   
After a week Mika decided, that because Tohma was from Tokyo, she needed to show him around. And so she became his personal tour guide, almost dragging him to see the castle and other tourist attractions.   
Tohma tried to protest, that his uncle and aunt, with which he was staying, were living in Kyoto, but Mika put her hands on her hips, and Tohma surrendered with nervous chuckle.   
Before they realized, the end of summer was near. They went together to summer festival, to enjoy their freedom for a one last time.   
“You know, it’s shame I have to go back to Tokyo soon,” Tohma sighed.   
“Why is that shame? I have to go too,” Mika blinked.   
Tohma raised eyebrow, “You do?”   
“Yeah, school is starting again, so yeah, I do have to go back,” Mika said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.   
“Wait, you are attending university in Tokyo?” Tohma asked.   
“Yeah, didn’t I mention it?” Mika chuckled, “I study Law at Keio university.”   
Tohma let out an exasperated sigh. But then he smiled.   
“Well then, maybe I can show you around Tokyo then and return your favor?” he asked hopefully, “And maybe, we can… have a dinner sometimes?”   
Mika smirked, “Is the great Fujisaki Tohma asking a small priestess on a date.”   
Tohma looked sheepish, “Yes, I am, if you agree, but… I have to tell you something. My name is really Seguchi and not Fujisaki.”   
Mika was angry at Tohma for hiding his name. But when Tohma explained who he was, and that he didn’t want to be bothered by hordes of rabid fans, she softened. A determined look appeared on her face.   
“Okay, let’s go on a date, but I have a rule,” she pointed a finger to Tohma’s nose, “No fans. And I mean, I want no fans, during our dates, to jump at us.”   
“Of course, I promise,” Tohma nodded, “And… did you say dates? As in plural?”   
Mika smirked, “Yes, of course. Or are you such dishonest man, that you would use a pure innocent priestess and then throw her away?”   
Tohma chuckled, “Of course not, I will stay with you, until you get bored of me, my guardian angel.” 

\- G - G - G – 

Mika finished her story. She glanced at Shuichi, who was unusually quiet. She noticed that his eyes were all glassy, so she let him be. She hoped, that he realized, that if he thought he was unwanted, he was deadly wrong.   
They arrived at the Seguchi residence. Mika parked and quickly exited the car.   
Shuichi followed her inside, maybe a bit reluctantly. After all, he still didn’t know, what to say to Tohma. If the blonde would be angry at Shuchi, for hiding, for lying, for running away. He was scared and wanted to run away. His feet felt like lead, but he forced himself to go after Mika.   
As soon as they entered the house, Mika called, “Tadaima.”   
They heard a hurried footsteps, and soon Tohma appeared in the doorway, holding a small towel, wiping his flour covered hands.   
Both men froze once they laid eyes on each other.   
Then Shuichi gripped the front of his clothes, tears falling as a barrage of emotions hit him. This was his brother, whom he caused so much pain, when he let him think he was dead. When he was just a little brat and ran away from his problems.   
“I…” Shuichi choked out, trying to stay calm, so he could apologize, “I’m sorry, Tohma-nii…”   
Suddenly he was almost knocked of his feet, as Tohma’s body collided with his, and all air was squeezed out of him, because of how hard Tohma hugged him.   
“You are really here,” Tohma whispered, “I thought you were dead, I thought I lost you…”   
At this Shuichi’s legs gave up, and both brothers sank to the their knees. Shuichi hugged Tohma back and cried out loud, and mumbled apologizes over and over again, between hiccups.   
Mika smiled softly, and quietly left, letting the brothers have a moment to themselves. It was long overdue, with ten years since, they really saw each other.


End file.
